Explorers and creators of markets: advertising and market research in the neoliberal era 

The presentation focuses on the role of market research – as a practice, knowledge, and industry – in the constant making and re-making of markets. Particularly, I study the industry in Sweden in the 1980s and 1990s, but I also connect the Swedish case to international developments through material from the organization Esomar (European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research, founded in 1947). The argument that I'm developing revolves around the justification (Boltanski & Chiapello, 2005) of the industry and its knowledge and practices in a period when a market logic became imperative in large parts of society. This research is part of a 3–year postdoc project entitled "The market makers: advertising and the socio-economic transformation of Sweden 1970–2000".